Welcome food lovers of Georgia! This blog will focus on reviews of Atlanta area restaurants, bars and specialty foods or grocery stores. The restaurants reviewed will feature many different types of food in all price ranges. I will not be reviewing chain restaurants. I will also pose general food questions, indicated by the heading "Food For Thought". "Special Features" will highlight food purveyors in the South. Please use it to your advantage, and contribute comments that will benefit others.

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Friday, May 7, 2010

Mulberry Street Pizza

4355 Cobb Pkwy SE, Atlanta, GA www.mulberrystreetpizza.com

Last night my friends Megan, Brian and I had dinner at Mulberry Street Pizza. The restaurant is located in a shopping center between a bicycle shop and Laseter’s Tavern, across the street from Kroger on Cobb Pkwy. I just happened to drive by and notice it on my way home from work a few weeks ago and decided to give it a shot.

The interior décor might look cheap and uninteresting (plastic booths, linoleum floors, the typical red/white/green of the Italian flag), but the pizza is surprisingly good. I ordered a slice of tomato and pesto and another slice of bacon and mushrooms. The pesto was great – full of good olive oil and basil. I was worried the bacon would be undercooked and soggy. It wasn’t. It was crisp and fragrant and crumbled. I was happy to see that they didn’t skimp on it, either. It covered the entire slice of pizza.

There are options for regular cheese crust and Sicilian crust, which is thicker and softer. I went with the regular rather than pay the upcharge for the Sicilian. The crust was average, not fantastic but fine. The great toppings more than made up for the lackluster crust.

The menu isn’t especially exciting. Mulberry Street Pizza isn’t trying to be California Pizza Kitchen or some other trendy pizza joint. Which is fine - Atlanta needs many types of pizza. The serve simple, traditional options such as regular pizza, calzones, garlic bread and Stromboli. The bacon and pesto that I ordered were the most exciting toppings available. For salads, they have the usual suspects: Caesar, Italian Garden, Greek, antipasto. I never go to a pizza place and order salad, and if I did, I wouldn’t waste my time with these predictable choices. There was also a small sign at our table advertising tiramisu and cannolis, but neither of these were on display or posted on the regular menu.

It’s much better than Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, etc., but not as good as nearby Blue Moon Pizza. However, it’s notably less expensive (when comparing with Blue Moon’s specialty pizzas, which is all I ever order), so it seems to even out. A small pizza (12”) is $9.99, medium (14”) is $11.99, large (16”) is $12.99 and x-large (18”) is $14.99. Megan and Brian split a small Margherita (which they enjoyed) and were happy with the portion size, but I can tell you that Kyle and I would have eaten at least a whole medium. Still, $12 for dinner for 2 is a good deal, about what you’d pay for fast food but much better quality.

The service was friendly and timely. I got the feeling there’s a small, possibly family staff, and they seem to take pride in their place and their food, which is nice.

2 comments:

I like your blog, but I would encourage you to give some of the smaller chains a chance. :) Don't lump all of us who have multiple locations together with "Pizza Hut" & "Dominos". I'm in the process of building out our 1st restaurant but will be doing another in a nearby area in 6 months and we are part of a small local "chain" that is just getting started. I think we have the best pizza on the planet!

Let me know if you are every in South Arkansas or any of my other restaurants (in the future) and I will hook you up with a taste testing sample of our menu!

Hi Ray. Glad you are enjoying my blog. I thought I WAS giving the smaller chains a chance . . . I've reviewed Blue Moon Pizza and Mulberry Pizza so far on this blog, and had positive comments about each. I hope to post on some more pizza places soon, and if I'm ever in south Arkansas, I'll be happy to try your pizza!